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Ballot selfies are illegal in Maryland, for now

Voting hit a snag Tuesday morning at several polling sites in Baltimore City when the polls didn’t open at 7 a.m. as scheduled. Photo by Rachel Baye/WYPR.
Rachel Baye
/
WYPR
Voting booths during Maryland's 2024 Primary Election.

If you’re thinking of taking a selfie with your ballot in the voting booth, think again.

Maryland law prohibits taking photos in the voting booth, though photos with a mail-in ballot or outside a polling place are allowed.

Tuesday’s election is likely the last one with that prohibition. At its meeting in late October, the State Board of Elections gave preliminary approval to new regulations that permit people to take photos of their own ballots for personal use.

“This is, again, one of these things, especially for younger voters, that can increase excitement in the electoral process and get them to share,” Democratic board member Yaakov “Jake” Weissmann said at the meeting last month. “We know, study after study, that folks telling other folks about voting is a way to increase turnout.”

The public can submit comments on the proposed change before the board finalizes it in December.

Twenty-five states already allow photos in the voting booth, according to a recent report by the advocacy group Lawyers For Good Government, while 13 states explicitly ban them. Maryland is one of seven states that permits selfies with mail-in ballots but not inside a polling station.

Rachel Baye is a senior reporter and editor in WYPR's newsroom.
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